The typical campfire used by man since before the dawn of recorded time consists of a perimeter of rocks. Within that perimeter is placed the fuel for the fire. People use campfires for cooking, protection against the elements and wildlife, roasting marshmallows, a source of warmth, and as a center around which people seat themselves and interact. Campfires provide a natural, possibly primal, outdoor social nucleus. Since most homeowners are not willing to create such campfires in their own backyards, they must travel to a park or other remote area that allows campfires. Camping entails planning, packing, and travel; all of which consumes much time and leaves less time for the actual camping experience.
As far as enjoying an outdoor fire while camping, the age-old campfire has a tremendous advantage over the existing waist-level cookers and barbecue units. The campfire is at floor level. Waist-level cookers do not provide the same social nucleus that the traditional campfire does. Campers do not seat themselves in a circle around an outdoor cooker. Smaller portable cookers, which may create fire near floor level, are not of sufficient size to approximate a campfire. Further, they are unable to cook much food due to their small size and are unable to produce enough heat to warm the social circle.
As stated, outdoor fire pits, grills, barbecues, and cookers, with the exception of the chiminaya and to a lesser extent the Weber.RTM. Fireplace (discussed below), are at a disadvantage to campfires in that their fires are not at floor level. Therefore, they do not approximate a campfire. But they do enjoy one important advantage over a campfire: they can be located at home on one's back patio, deck, or porch. A campfire, as noted above, is not easily created in one's backyard without creating an ashen pit where the grass used to be. It could not be safely created on a deck, patio, or porch due to the contact of the fire with the deck, patio, or porch.
Many such cookers of the outdoor variety are non-portable. The typical city park or Forest Service barbecue is a heavy metal box with a grill on top. The entire barbecue is mounted atop a metal pole stuck into the ground. It does not approximate a campfire since it is waist high. Other non-portable firepits found at campsites are floor level and made of stone, brick, or cement. They are installed in a dirt base because the potentially high temperatures created by the fire could crack or buckle cement. Home non-portable units (except the chiminaya, below) are unequivocally waist high.
Several portable barbecues exist for outdoor use. All are supported at their base by legs or similar extension which contact the supporting surface (a table, the ground, a deck, etc.) and raise the fire above the support surface. Some are designed to hang from the sides of balcony railing (U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,448 to Sandweg in 1991). Of all the outdoor cooking devices that exist, none are capable of a floor-level fire for use within a wooden deck. This is due to the likelihood that the floor surface could attain a temperature that results in ignition or damage to the wooden deck.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,214 to Lamendola (1994) discloses a heavy-duty cooking assembly made of masonry with waist-level cooking surface that when disassembled does not leave evidence of its existence. Since many heavy-duty outdoor barbecues are unsightly, removal leaves scarred cement or brick remnants. Although it bridges many of the gaps between portable and non-portable outdoor cookers, it too has a cooking surface at waist level and admits of the unsightliness of the usual bulky, outdoor non-portable cooker. As such, homeowners often attempt to dismantle these cookers before selling a home and moving. This creates an unsightly scar where the cooker was installed.
The chiminaya is essentially a clay bowl. It is a centuries-old Mexican, outdoor clay fire pit that can be installed in a homeowner's yard or patio. With a chiminaya, a homeowner can enjoy a fire at floor level. To install the chiminaya, the homeowner digs a bowl-shaped hole to match the shape of the chiminaya or creates such a hole in a patio. He then lowers the chiminaya into the hole. It adds attractive ambiance to a home. However, since it is made of clay, it is susceptible to cracking at higher temperatures. Homeowners unsuccessfully use propane fire rings for a heat source, but these rings are not in direct contact with the clay. One supplier of different versions of the chiminayas cautions against using charcoal, lighter fluid, or Dura-Flame.RTM.-type logs because the high heat produced might crack the clay. Moreover, since the chiminaya comes into direct contact with the support surface of the patio, the support surface is at the mercy of the temperatures transferred through the clay. When it was created centuries ago, the chiminaya was intended to be set into the earth. If the chiminaya is installed in a cement patio, high temperatures in the chiminaya may crack or buckle the cement.
Other relevant prior art includes the Weber.RTM. Fireplace. It is essentially a shallow bowl supported by four very short legs and comes with a lid. The bowl has a rack inside it to support fireplace logs. The purpose of the Weber.RTM. Fireplace is to allow users to enjoy the ambiance of a fireplace outdoors. The disadvantage of the fireplace is that it may not be safely used in combination with a wooden deck due to the close proximity of the base of the shallow bowl with the floor. The Weber.RTM. Kettle Company even sells a hot pad upon which the Weber.RTM. Fireplace may rest to protect the underlying wooden deck from damage due to the high heat produced by the Weber.RTM. Fireplace. Moreover, the Weber.RTM. Fireplace may not be used as a barbecue since there is no cooking rack employed above the fire source. Further, the Weber.RTM. Fireplace only allows a fire to be created above floor level. This does not approximate a campfire.
The present invention solves the problem of enjoying both a barbecue cooker and a campfire on a wooden deck. A large metal grate is installed in the deck to diffuse the heat from a centrally located metal fireplace.